Minute-by-minute via the voice in my Treo

9:07 p.m.: It's official -- Adam Puharic won.

9:00 p.m.: The vote is being still being tallied, from what I'm hearing. Apparently, the winner has to be a plurality not a majority.

7:55 p.m.: Folks are voting. Middletown also has a strong turn-out.

7:40 p.m.: The convention has started and the word on the street is that Noreen Kelly's faction of Howell has turned out en masse. The vibe is that Puharic has the votes.

Puharic should take a closer look at his associates

In Bayshore Journalista chairman opinion news...

Former Freeholder Ed Stominski and Mel Hood are wonderful men. However, they do not have the votes to win the chairmanship. Their base of votes will pull from Jim Giannell's, and thus elect Adam Puharic chairman. It will be unfortunate if their legacy becomes that of spoilers in one of the most important elections the Monmouth County GOP has faced.

And then the news that Adam Puharic may be considering Scott Broschart as MC GOP executive director. Jim Purcell reported it first, but I heard it from a different and highly reliable source as well.

I find this greatly disturbing for a number of reasons. One of which happens to be allegations about Broschart's campaign financing, which were investigated by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, though Broschart was never charged with any crime or violation.

But there is also an incident I never put out there in the public record that I feel compelled to reveal now.

During the time I was a reporter, I received a tip that Broschart had allegedly been stalking two Democrats who were possibly in a relationship.

I readily admit to a certain level of deception in what happened next, but I felt it was necessary to uncover whether stalking had or had not occurred. I called Mr. Broschart under the auspices of having an interest level in the nature of the two Democrats' relationship.

Mr. Broschart said he had done "some investigating" into the matter and sounded pretty eager to show me what he had in possession.

The next day Mr. Broschart came to Courier with photographs of the woman's car at her home as well as two letters disparaging the individuals. Mr. Broschart said he had not taken the photographs or written the letters himself, but had received them in the mail from an anonymous source. I found this difficult to believe, as did others at the office.

The two individuals involved -- who were not in elected office -- suffered other indignities by a correspondent or correspondents who remained anonymous. The nature of these would turn your stomach, but for the sake of preserving the identity of these individuals, I can't go into specific details.

This story is pretty well known among party leaders.

If one of Adam Puharic's first decisions as GOP leader is to select Broschart as executive director, the party is on the road to total disaster. And it speaks a great deal to Adam Puharic's fitness as a potential chairman that he would allegedly associate with such people.

On losing one's blogging inspiration... and getting it back

I got to hand it to the Monmouth Republicans lately. As Fred's reign waned and it looked like grassroots reform was actually on the horizon, you guys got down right boring to blog about. And the Monmouth Democrats? Well, when they arrive out of their perpetual press paralysis perhaps they'll be interesting to blog about some time soon.

But I've found my blogging inspiration again, folks, with visions of future ELEC reports dancing in my head.

Given Adam Puharic's statements to PoliticsNJ, the TRT and the general county bees buzz-buzzing around, it looks like we're in for Fred redux (and I somehow think that Gibbons, Del Dio will be reaping the bond benefits into infinitum. Municipal marinas for everyone, darlings!).

There's an inherent elitism in dismissing the recent grassroots voting by the county committee in favor of a return to executive committee-only voting, and I find it greatly disturbing. The only ones who stand to benefit from such a position are those whose mortgages and mansions are tied up in county and municipal jobs.

And the only way to effectively support such a system is a return to questionable fundraising tactics, of the developers and engineers and attorneys and contractors paving the way and having the say so.

But it looks like this is the road the Monmouth GOP is destined to stay on. The reform-minded will vote for Ed Stominski and Jim Giannell, effectively splitting their vote and diffusing any chance of actual change.

I respect Ed Stominski and Mel Hood a great deal but I believe Jim Giannell has proven he can organize the party and bring solid candidates to the forefront and should be the county's next chairman. I believe that Ed Stominski and Mel Hood can serve a vital role in fundraising for the party and should be a part of any new executive committee.

However if some compromise isn't reached among Ed, Mel and Jim, I believe all three will be left out in the cold, as well as a significant portion of the dedicated county committee members.

But if my premonition is correct and the committee goes for Fred redux, I have a feeling I won't be at as much of a loss for my future Monmouth blogging.

O'Grady found guilty

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060608/NEWS/60608005

Guess the whole no-defense defense strategy didn't work.

I was as interested in seeing Mr. Azzolina, Peter Carton and Joe Kyrillos take the stand as anyone else. I guess O'Grady's team ultimately decided that the Palughi drama presented enough evidence of reasonable doubt that they didn't need to go down the super-witness list road.

But obviously, the jury thought otherwise.